Elizabeth Warren Lies About Her Heritage Again at Tribal Nations Summit: ‘My Mother’s Family Was Part Native American’

Elizabeth Warren Lies About Her Heritage Again at Tribal Nations Summit: ‘My Mother’s Family Was Part Native American’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has once again made the false claim that she has Native American ancestry.
“My mother’s family was part Native American,” she said in a speech to the National Congress of American Indians Tribal Nations Policy Summit in Washington, D.C, on Wednesday, according to prepared text provided to the Boston Globe.

In her speech, Warren continued to make the false claim of Native American ancestry she first made in 1984 when she described herself as “Elizabeth Warren, Cherokee” in several recipes, two of which–“Cold Omelets with Crab Meat” and “Crab with Tomato Mayonnaise Dressing”— were apparently plagiarized from a 1979 article “written by Pierre Franey of the the New York Times News Service” which she contributed to the cookbook, Pow Wow Chow: A Collection of Recipes from Families of the Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek & Seminole.

Warren repeated the self-reverential observation when she spent the bulk of her speech lecturing the National Congress of American Indians about Pocahontas.

“I’ve noticed that every time my name comes up, President Trump likes to talk about Pocahontas. So I figured, let’s talk about Pocahontas. Not Pocahontas, the fictional character most Americans know from the movies, but Pocahontas, the Native woman who really lived, and whose real story has been passed down to so many of you through the generations,” Warren said, noting that “her story has been taken away by powerful people who twisted it to serve their own purposes.

Warren warmed to her theme on social media:

I’ve noticed that when my name comes up, @realDonaldTrump likes to talk about Pocahontas. So I figured, let’s talk about Pocahontas. Not the tale that's been twisted for centuries – but the real Pocahontas, and her story of heroism. And bravery. And pain. @NCAI1944#ECWS2018

More than five years ago, in May 2012, Breitbart News reported there is absolutely no credible evidence to support Warren’s false claim of Native American ancestry.

No documents support Warren’s false claim, nor does any DNA genetic evidence back her.

“The New England Historical Genealogical Society, which originally announced they found evidence of Elizabeth Warren’s Native American heritage, said today they have discovered no documentation to back up claims that she is 1/32 Cherokee,” the Boston Herald reported in May 2012.

‘NEHGS has not expressed a position on whether Mrs. Warren has Native American ancestry, nor do we possess any primary sources to prove that she is,” said Tom Champoux, spokesman for the NEHGS. “We have no proof that Elizabeth Warren’s great great great grandmother O.C. Sarah Smith [Crawford] either is or is not of Cherokee descent.’”

As Breitbart News reported, Warren does descend from O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford’s husband, Jonathan Crawford, who was a member of the Tennessee Militia that rounded up Cherokee tribe members in the 1830s for the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.

“You won’t find my family members on any rolls, and I’m not enrolled in a tribe,” Warren conceded, but added, ” I never used my family tree to get a break or get ahead. I never used it to advance my career.”

As Breitbart News reported previously, however, beginning in 1986 and continuing into 1995, Warren claimed that she had minority status in the Association of American Law Schools directory.

Those claims began while she was a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and were part of her job application submitted that ended in her hiring on the faculty of Harvard Law School.

Warren also told another false story about her parents, one which Breitbart News debunked more than five years ago:

By all accounts, my mother was a beauty. She was born in Eastern Oklahoma, on this exact day — Valentine’s Day — February 14, 1912. She grew up in the little town of Wetumka, the kind of girl who would sit for hours by herself, playing the piano and singing. My daddy fell head over heels in love with her.

But my mother’s family was part Native American. And my daddy’s parents were bitterly opposed to their relationship. So, in 1932, when Mother was 19 and Daddy had just turned 20, they eloped.

Warren demonstrated an extraordinary level of hubris by asserting this false claim once again to a gathering of a group most of whose members have factual evidence that proves their Native American heritage.

In November, Native American activist Rebecca Nagle called Warren out for her false claims of Native American ancestry in a Think Progress op-ed titled “I Am A Cherokee Woman. Elizabeth Warren Is Not.”

“Sen. Warren needs to accept responsibility for misappropriating Native identity for her own economic and political gain. To help her, I have drafted an apology, which she has my full permission to appropriate. Every last word,” Nagle continued, offering this draft apology for Warren’s use.

I am deeply sorry to the Native American people who have been greatly harmed by my misappropriation of Cherokee identity. I want to especially apologize to the over 350,000 citizens of Cherokee Nation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the United Keetoowah Band. In my family, there is an oral history of being Cherokee, however, research on my genealogy going back over 150 years does not reveal a single Native ancestor. Like many Americans who grew up with family members claiming to be Cherokee, I now know that my family’s stories were based on myth rather than fact. I am not enrolled in any of the three Federally recognized Cherokee Tribes, nor am I an active member of any Cherokee or Native American community. Native Nations are not relics of the past, but active, contemporary, and distinct political groups who are still fighting for recognition and sovereignty within the United States. Those of us who claim false Native identity undermine this fight.

I am sorry for the real damage that Native Americans have experienced as the debate about my false identity has revived the worst stereotypes and offensive racist remarks, all while Native people have been silenced. I will do my part as a Senator to push for the United States to fully recognize tribal nations’ inherent sovereignty and uphold our treaty obligations to Native Nations. I will use my national platform to advance the rights of Native Americans and I commit to building real relationships in Indian Country as an ally and supporter.

Warren ignored Nagle, and offered no such apology in her speech on Wednesday.